AuthorTopic: forced mono albums (Read 978 times)

With some applications I can combine the left and right channel to force a track to be mono. How would this compare to listening to the mono track in the mono box set. I know at least with the Sgt Pepper album I would not hear the faster version of "She's Leaving Home".

I'm not an expert on this thing. But almost all albums were mixed mono, for that was the leading technology in the 60's. So, getting back to mono from stereo versions, it will not be the exact mono as it was initially done, I think. There are some big differences between mono and stereo mixes here and there.

Technically you can convert stereo to mono with any audio software, but as Bobber says, the original mixes were different. Moreover, when you combine both channels, the relative volume is changed. For example, if you have a song with the vocal on the centre (both channels) and the guitar only on the right channel, the direct mono version will have the vocals at the same volume but the guitar at half the volume. That's a problem with many Beatles recordings mixed as extreme stereo, because if you convert them to mono you will have some sounds buried and will not be fully appreciated.

Funny thing on my iPhone is, I can go into the settings and change the music to mono.

1) General, 2) Accessibility, and switch to Mono Audio.

I find "most" differences hardly worth going back and forth over to hear the differences, but to each their own. Obviously a biggy is Ringo screaming "I've Got Blisters On My Fingers" not on the mono version.

If your real interested, YouTube has a few threads showing the differences on each album.